Cary Street Partners Financial LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Alphabet Inc. $GOOG

Cary Street Partners Financial LLC cut its stake in Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 0.9% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 227,163 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,974 shares during the quarter. Alphabet comprises about 1.4% of Cary Street Partners Financial LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC’s holdings in Alphabet were worth $55,326,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. University of Illinois Foundation bought a new position in Alphabet in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Alphabet during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Horrell Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Alphabet by 100.0% during the second quarter. Horrell Capital Management Inc. now owns 200 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Alphabet during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. grew its holdings in Alphabet by 60.9% in the second quarter. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. now owns 251 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. 27.26% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Alphabet

Here are the key news stories impacting Alphabet this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Google rolled out Nano Banana 2, an upgraded AI image generator with faster performance and better text handling — reinforces product leadership for Gemini/search integrations and helps drive user engagement across Google services. Google launches Nano Banana 2
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet reportedly struck a multibillion-dollar deal to rent its AI chips (TPUs) to Meta — a direct revenue and margin-positive outcome from Alphabet’s AI infrastructure investments. Google signs multibillion-dollar AI chip deal with Meta
• Positive Sentiment: Alphabet is securing power supply agreements for data centers (deals with AES and Xcel), which reduces execution risk for its AI/cloud buildout and supports continued capacity expansion. Alphabet Secures Power Deals
• Positive Sentiment: South Korea approved Google’s request to export high‑precision map data, opening commercial opportunities for Google Maps and Waymo in a market previously restricted — potential revenue and product expansion tailwind. South Korea approves Google bid
• Positive Sentiment: Heavy investors continue to add to Alphabet: notable buying by billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller was reported — an endorsement that can support sentiment among long-term institutional investors. Druckenmiller buys Alphabet
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst coverage and buy ratings remain favorable (recent upgrades and positive notes on cloud/AI), supporting longer-term upside expectations even after concerns about spending. MarketBeat coverage
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest updates in available feeds show anomalous/zero reporting and NaN changes — appears to be noisy data and unlikely to be driving today’s move. (Data entries flagged as 0/NaN.)
• Negative Sentiment: Belgian competition authorities opened a probe into Google’s online ad pricing practices — a regulatory risk that could pressure ad margins or lead to fines/operational changes in Europe. Belgian watchdog probe
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressure intensified after OpenAI raised massive funding with Amazon/Nvidia/Microsoft as backers — concentrates AI competition and could blunt parts of Google’s enterprise opportunity or pricing power. OpenAI record funding report
• Negative Sentiment: Investor cautions: critics (Michael Burry, some options trade services) have flagged Alphabet’s aggressive AI capex and warned of margin pressure — a reminder of downside risk if spending outpaces near-term monetization. Michael Burry on Google’s AI spending

Alphabet Stock Up 1.4%

Shares of GOOG stock opened at $311.43 on Friday. Alphabet Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $142.66 and a fifty-two week high of $350.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.77 trillion, a PE ratio of 28.81, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.01 and a current ratio of 2.01. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $321.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $282.81.

Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The information services provider reported $2.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.59 by $0.23. Alphabet had a return on equity of 35.01% and a net margin of 32.81%.The firm had revenue of $113.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $111.24 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.15 earnings per share. Alphabet’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Alphabet Inc. will post 8.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Alphabet Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 9th will be paid a $0.21 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 9th. This represents a $0.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.3%. Alphabet’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.77%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on GOOG. Pivotal Research reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $420.00 price objective (up from $400.00) on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Alphabet in a research note on Wednesday, December 17th. Loop Capital raised Alphabet from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Wedbush restated an “outperform” rating and set a $370.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Alphabet in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-eight have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Alphabet has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $343.90.

Insider Transactions at Alphabet

In related news, CEO Sundar Pichai sold 32,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.92, for a total transaction of $9,877,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 2,818,524 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $856,605,814.08. This trade represents a 1.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director John L. Hennessy sold 600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $306.73, for a total transaction of $184,038.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,624 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,325,999.52. The trade was a 2.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,112,482 shares of company stock valued at $119,145,289. 12.99% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Alphabet Company Profile

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a multinational technology holding company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Formed in 2015 through a corporate restructuring of Google, Alphabet serves as the parent to Google LLC and a portfolio of businesses collectively known as “Other Bets.” Google was originally founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Alphabet is led by CEO Sundar Pichai, who oversees Google and the broader company while the founders remain prominent shareholders and influential figures in the company’s history.

Alphabet’s core business centers on internet search and advertising, with Google Search and the company’s ad platforms (including Google Ads and AdSense) generating the majority of revenue by connecting advertisers with consumers worldwide.